About

The Stork and the Sparrow

CA$ 5,260

pledged of CA$ 3,750 goal

90

backers

About the Story - a Story of Adoption & Identity

"The Stork and the Sparrow" is a picture book about a white stork, Abigail, who rescues an egg she discovers while migrating through Africa. The egg hatches, and Rosy, a small round bird, appears. Abigail later discovers that Rosy is a cinnamon sparrow - a type of bird only found in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Rosy doesn’t always fit in with the storks, and when her biological heritage is revealed, Rosy leaves in search of her “real” family. Hong Kong and the other cinnamon sparrows are not quite what she expected, and Rosy discovers that what makes a real family is the love you show for each other.

About the Illustrations

The illustrations are collage. I used canvas board in making them along with special papers, acrylic medium (glue), a bone-folder, and scissors. After they were finished I took a photo and edited them using photoshop & illustrator. The collage pieces would take (on average) 24 hours to complete.

Here are some of my favorite illustrations from the book:

About the Physical Book

The books were printed by First Choice Books in Victoria, BC. It was important for me to have this book printed locally and ethically: knowing that people at the printers are getting a fair wage and have fair working conditions and knowing that I'm getting a quality product while also being more environmentally friendly.

The books are 8x8 inches with a hardcover. The inside illustrations are to the edge of the page. There are 23 full-colour illustrations in the book. The colours of the illustrations are beautifully vibrant!

I did all the book design myself, including the cover & choosing the fun "Quicksand" font.

About this Kickstarter Project

"The Stork and the Sparrow" is a project I have been working on for over 3 years! Although, I finished the book many months ago, I am using kickstarter to help supporters pre-pay for copies (& shipping) of the book. I'm hoping that people will want to buy my book for themselves and as Christmas presents for children in their lives!

I really hope I am able to raise this amount of money because it will mean that my book is making it into the hands of many people, and it will help towards the cost of printing books for myself to sell here on consignment and at holiday craft fairs.

Special Thanks To

I want to give a special thanks to Sandra Vander Schaaf (sandravanderschaaf.ca) for being my writing mentor & dear friend here in Vancouver, Dal Schindell for leading me through an illustration directed study while at Regent and for giving me feedback on "The Stork and the Sparrow" illustrations, and all the wonderful writers I met through "Write! Vancouver" including: Kathy Tyers, Susan Pieters, Jen Landels, Melanie Anastasiou, and Bev Boissery.

Risks and challenges

It will involve a lot of work for me to get all the books and rewards produced and sent out in time for Christmas -- it's a pretty tight turnaround after the campaign finishes. But, since the book is complete and I've already got a printer lined up and ready to go, and since I'm a very organized person, I think this should be very doable.

I am actually excited about getting everything organized to ship (hopefully around the world) or give to people at the launch party.